The prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidential run in 2016 has aroused new interest in the 1990s, writes Peter Nicholas (@PeterNicholas3), with her critics preparing to cast her oversight of a health-reform effort as the precursor of Obamacare while she will portray the Bill Clinton presidency as a time when Washington worked better and budgets were balanced. [WSJ]

David Frum (@FrumFeed) writes that as many as 10 million will have signed up for the newly expanded Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act by 2017, making it unrealistic to think a Republican successor to President Barack Obama could repeal the act entirely and strip that new coverage from so many citizens. [Daily Beast]

Liberal commentator Mark Shields says that if Obamacare fails, it’ll be “the end of liberal government, in the sense of any sense of government as an instrument of social justice, an engine of economic progress, which is what divides Democrats from Republicans.” [NewsHour]

Despite all the excitement over fracking in the U.S., some energy companies large and small are starting to express skepticism that the natural-gas boom that fracking is producing will be as big or long-lasting as some claim. [The Economist]

One reason it has taken so long for regulators to implement the Volcker Rule (which limits banks’ trading for their own portfolios) is that market cops and bank cops can’t agree on what it should say, Catherine Hollander (@hollandercb) writes. [National Journal]

E.J. Dionne (@EJDionne) says George H.W. Bush’s pledge for a kinder, gentler nation in 1988 has become a reality, based on lower crime rates and growth in the number of Americans against the death penalty. But without gun regulations of the sort that prevail in other democratic nations “gains in social generosity will be lost if we confront another spell of violence.” [Washington Post]

Dylan Love counts five ways in which technology has given us what the fictional Jetsons had in the 1960s cartoon show. [Business Insider]

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On “Seib & Wessel,” Jerry, David and WSJ reporters discuss how the White House is playing catch-up in the race to rectify the glitchy Obamacare rollout and what it means for the future of the program? Also: Iran may still strike a deal with the U.S. on its nuclear stocks, despite the failure of talks in Geneva. Watch the full showor segments:

Women have recovered all the jobs they lost during the recession. Men have not. [WSJ]

Giving girls bicycles in India raised the rate of school attendance in an experiment by about 30%. [NBER]

The typical worker between 20 and 29 years expects to retire at age 62.8 — 2.4 years sooner than the typical retirement age today, an Aegon survey finds. [Quartz]

The U.S. Postal Service carried nearly 1% fewer pieces of mail of all kinds in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30. Revenue from its most profitable service, first-class mail, declined 2.4%. [WSJ]

A pair of New York City taxi medallions—permits to operate a yellow cab—attracted a combined bid of more than $2.5 million at auction. [WSJ]

The percentage of U.S. adults who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender ranges from 1.7% in North Dakota to 5.1% in Hawaii and 10% in the District of Columbia, according to Gallup surveys. [Gallup]

Fewer US. workers are testing positive for drug use than 25 years ago: 3.5% tested positive in 2012 vs. 13.6% in 1988, according to an examination of 125 million urine drug tests by Quest Diagnostics. [WSJ]

The percentage of high-school students who said they smoked a cigar in the previous 30 days rose to 12.6% in 2012 from 11.6% in 2011. [WSJ]

During the past decade, the Washington, D.C., metro area added 21,000 households whose income put them in the nation’s top 1%. No other metro area came close. [Washington Post]

About Washington Wire

Washington Wire is one of the oldest standing features in American journalism. Since the Wire launched on Sept. 20, 1940, the Journal has offered readers an informal look at the capital. Now online, the Wire provides a succession of glimpses at what’s happening behind hot stories and warnings of what to watch for in the days ahead. The Wire is led by Reid J. Epstein, with contributions from the rest of the bureau. Washington Wire now also includes Think Tank, our home for outside analysis from policy and political thinkers.